What Are You Thinking?

“Finally brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” Phil. 4:8 ESV

These words were written by the apostle Paul at the end of his letter to the Philippians. Philippians is considered the “book of joy”. It makes sense, if you’re writing a letter to someone, you’d want to make sure the last words were a confirmation of the letter’s purpose, in this case, to exhort people to be joyful.

Paul is encouraging the Philippians to keep their minds in check – to be aware of their thoughts and to exercise sound judgment. One of the key ingredients to learn how to be content is to pay attention to our thinking and renew our minds with godly reasoning.

The Bible often refers to our minds as “the heart”, Proverbs 4:23 says: “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.” If our brains go on auto-pilot, we don’t even realize all the worldly information we’re bombarded with, which later proceeds to shape our decision-making process.

Our actions, emotions, and decisions are just an expression of what we’re thinking.

If we find ourselves being easily angered or offended, being intolerant or feeling miserable, it might be a good idea to stop and consider what are we believing. Being rooted in the truth is the beginning to having healthy interactions and relationships with others which are going to contribute to our fulfillment.

Jesus said that the thief comes only to steal, kill, and destroy, but he came to give abundant life. John 10:10

In order for Christians to have that abundant life, we need to be vigilant and intentional. Our nature is to nurture destructive thoughts, that’s why it’s important to renew our mind every day: “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” Rom. 12:2a.

A good way we can start renewing our mind it’s by pondering the TV shows we watch, the music we listen to, or even people we follow on social media. Are these contents contributing to form healthy ideas or are these detriments to our beliefs? It’s not an easy process, however, as we train our minds to this practice we might identify multiple sources of our wrongful thinking and we’ll be able to unplug them.

Robert Greene, an American author known for his books in strategy said: “Your mind is the starting point of all war and all strategy”. As Christians, if we want to be successful in having content lives, we must start by evaluating our thoughts process.

Today is a new and good day, let’s start counting our blessings and watch how it impacts our lives and others.

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